AI Adoption & Change Manager

The AI Adoption & Change Manager sits within Jazwares' IT organization on the AI Team and owns the human side of AI transformation – the practical work of making sure the tools and automations the team builds are actually trusted, learned, and used by the business. The AI Team is building production machine learning systems for pricing, demand forecasting, inventory, and supply chain optimization, and document intelligence systems for inbound and outbound licensing, SOPs, vendor governance, and product data. Each of these initiatives only delivers value when the people whose workflows are changing – across Sales, Finance, Planning, Legal, Licensing, Supply Chain, Operations, and IT – understand what is changing, why it matters, and how to work differently. The AI Adoption & Change Manager owns that outcome end‑to‑end. Reporting to the Senior AI Product Manager, the role builds change plans for each AI initiative; conducts stakeholder readiness assessments; designs communication, training, and enablement; runs sessions, demos, and feedback loops; partners with business owners to define adoption metrics; and tracks usage, resistance, and post‑launch issues so the team can keep improving. The role works in close partnership with the AI Business Analyst, Data Analysts, Lead AI Scientist, Project Manager, Product Leadership, and Department Leaders, and it is expected to embed AI outputs into day‑to‑day workflows rather than leaving them as optional tools on the shelf. This is a high‑visibility seat for someone who is energized by enterprise transformation, comfortable in fast‑moving and loosely defined environments, and willing to extend beyond a narrow role definition when the work calls for it. It is well suited to a practitioner who sees the ambiguity as opportunity and treats the success of the AI program as their own. Duties and Responsibilities Change Management Planning: Build change management plans for each AI/ML and LLM initiative, sequenced to the project's rollout, and updated as scope, audience, or readiness shifts. Stakeholder Mapping and Readiness Assessment: Identify impacted users, departments, workflows, and decision points; assess sponsorship, capability gaps, and readiness across each affected business area before launch. Communication Planning and Execution: Develop communication plans that explain what is changing, why it matters, and how users should work differently, then execute those plans across written, in‑person, and digital channels. Training and Enablement Design: Create training materials, playbooks, FAQs, enablement guides, and rollout communications, tuned to the role and context of each user group. Workshop and Session Facilitation: Lead training sessions, office hours, demos, and feedback sessions for end users, business owners, and leadership. Adoption Metrics and Tracking: Partner with business owners to define adoption metrics and accountability, then track usage, adoption rates, resistance, feedback, and post‑launch issues against those metrics. Workflow Integration and Continuous Improvement: Work with project teams and business owners to embed AI outputs into day‑to‑day workflows so the tools become part of how work gets done, then maintain feedback loops that drive iteration on training, communication, and product after launch. Resistance and Risk Management: Identify adoption risks early – including lack of trust, unclear ownership, poor workflow fit, or insufficient training – and work with business owners to address them before they become launch blockers. Communication: Maintain clear, timely written and verbal communication across business stakeholders, technical contributors, and executive sponsors, ensuring all parties understand current status, open risks, and next steps. Education Required: Bachelor’s Degree Preferred: Master’s Degree, Prosci/ADKAR, CCMP, Kotter, or other recognized change management methodology licensure. Required Level/Type/Years of Experience Educational Background: A bachelor's degree in Business, Communications, Organizational Development, Psychology, Human Resources, Information Systems, or a related field is required. Relevant Work Experience: A minimum of 5‑7 years of experience in change management, organizational development, transformation, training and enablement, communications, program management, or digital adoption, with at least some of that experience supporting enterprise technology rollouts or major process changes. Cross‑Functional Stakeholder Engagement: Demonstrated experience working with cross‑functional stakeholders and senior business leaders, including partnering with business owners and end users to drive readiness and adoption. Change Plan Design and Execution: Experience creating and executing structured change management plans – including communication, training, and enablement plans – across multiple concurrent initiatives. Adoption and Impact Measurement: Experience defining adoption metrics, tracking usage and behavior change, and reporting outcomes to business and executive audiences. Training and Communication Production: Hands‑on experience producing the artifacts that drive adoption – training decks, playbooks, FAQs, demos, enablement guides, and rollout communications – for both frontline and executive audiences. Enterprise Technology Rollouts: Experience supporting rollouts of enterprise systems such as ERP, CRM, BI, workflow, document management, analytics, or automation platforms, where adoption depended on coordinated change work rather than the technology alone. Preferred Level/Type/Years of Experience Industry Experience: Prior experience in the toy or consumer products vertical is highly valued, as is exposure to adjacent verticals such as retail, supply chain, licensing, legal operations, finance, IT, or shared services. AI‑Specific Adoption: Direct experience supporting AI, machine learning, LLM, analytics, or automation adoption – including familiarity with AI‑specific adoption risks such as trust, explainability, human review, data quality, and workflow fit – is considered a meaningful asset. Certification: Prosci, ADKAR, CCMP, Kotter, or comparable change management certification is preferred. Required Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, & Other Characteristics (KSAO's) Change Impact Assessment: Skilled at analyzing how a new tool or workflow changes the day‑to‑day experience of impacted users, and at translating that impact into the right adoption interventions. Stakeholder Mapping: Able to identify, segment, and prioritize stakeholders across business units and seniority levels, and to tailor engagement approaches to each. Communication Planning: Capable of designing communication plans that hit the right channels, cadence, and messaging for each audience. Training and Enablement Design: Experienced in designing role‑based training and enablement that moves users from awareness to capability to confident daily use. Workshop Facilitation: Strong facilitation skills – able to run training sessions, demos, and working sessions that hold attention, surface real concerns, and end with clear next steps. Resistance Management: Recognizes the early signals of resistance and addresses them constructively rather than by escalation alone. Adoption Measurement: Able to define, instrument, and report on adoption metrics in a way that drives business‑owner accountability and informs continuous improvement. Executive and Frontline Communication: Comfortable communicating clearly and credibly with executive sponsors and frontline users in the same week, adjusting tone and depth as needed. Translation and Communication: Produces clear, well‑structured written and verbal communication for technical and non‑technical audiences alike, with a particular ability to simplify complex technology – including AI and ML systems – without losing accuracy. Influence Without Authority: Moves work forward across teams and seniority levels through credibility, clarity, and shared interest rather than positional power. Practical Rollout Discipline: Sequences communication, training, and enablement against real launch milestones and keeps each rollout on track through to adoption. Comfort with Ambiguity: Operates effectively in fast‑moving, loosely defined environments where workflows, ownership, and processes are still being defined. Empathy for End Users: Builds change programs grounded in a real understanding of the user’s job, constraints, and frustrations – not just the project plan. Conscientiousness and Ownership: Takes full responsibility for the quality of the work, follows through on commitments, and is willing to extend beyond a narrow role definition when it serves the team and the project. Intellectual Curiosity and Learning Orientation: Genuinely interested in how the business works and how AI is changing it; willing to dig into unfamiliar domains rather than wait to be briefed. Preferred Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, & Other Characteristics (KSAO's) AI Adoption Risk Familiarity: Working understanding of adoption risks specific to AI – including trust, explainability, human review, data quality, model limitations, and workflow fit – and how those risks translate into communication and training choices. Role‑Based Enablement Journeys: Experience designing role‑based learning journeys that meet different audiences (executives, business owners, power users, frontline staff) where they actually are. Adoption Dashboards and KPI Reporting: Experience building adoption dashboards or KPI reports that make adoption visible to leadership and accountable for business owners. Survey, LMS, and Collaboration Tools: Familiarity with survey tools, LMS platforms, project tools, and collaboration platforms commonly used to run change programs at scale. AI and LLM Literacy: Working understanding of LLM concepts including source documents, citations, retrieval, human‑review workflows, and hallucination risk – particularly relevant to the team's principle that source text remains the source of truth. Partnership with Technical Teams: Comfort partnering deeply with technical teams – Data Analysts, AI Engineer(s), Product Management – without needing to be deeply technical, and able to ask the right questions to keep adoption work aligned to product reality. Recognized Change Management Certification: Prosci, ADKAR, CCMP, Kotter, or comparable change management certification. What we offer The salary range for this position is $112,000 - $139,000 / Yr. The base salary may vary based on experience, role tenure, performance, industry, and location. Eligibility for the annual performance incentive may apply. Jazwares is a multi‑state employer, so the salary range may not apply to other states. Our benefits package includes basic medical insurance that is 100% company‑paid for employees and their children, employee basic life and AD&D insurance, a 401(k) retirement program with Jazwares matching up to 4% of pretax or post‑tax deferrals, short and long‑term disability, and tuition reimbursement. Our work environment provides a flexible work schedule that includes Monday through Thursday on‑site, with an optional WFH on Fridays, up to 20 workdays fully remote each year, and Time Off for vacation and sick leave. Through Jazwares Cares, you will have the opportunity to volunteer for up to 16 hours a year on community service projects. Working at Jazwares At Jazwares, we believe an innovative idea can come from anywhere and anyone. Through our three pillars, we foster innovation and encourage creativity in every area of our business. Passion: Our conviction and enthusiasm show in our products, relationships, and commitment to our community. Collaboration: We share one vision worldwide, constantly striving to improve and innovate together. Humility: We recognize the value in others and treat everyone with respect. Our strength lies in our people and talent. JAZWARES is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in employment on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, national or ethnic origin, citizenship status, ancestry, disability, age, military status, marital status, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by law. Jazwares is committed to providing reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in employment, its services, programs, and activities. This role is not currently closed; applications are accepted through the normal application process. #J-18808-Ljbffr